The denial of tickets and last minutes changes in the lists announced by political parties brewed deep discontent among candidates, who hoped for Assembly tickets in the district.
While Parkal sitting MLA M. Bikshapathi held an emergency meeting with his followers as TRS refused to give him ticket, in Station Ghanpur, Congress leader Rajarapu Pratap held a similar meeting.
Mr. Biskhapathi’s supporter, A. Kiran, doused himself with kerosene and set himself ablaze angered over the denial of ticket to the sitting MLA. Meanwhile, the followers of R. Pratap burned Congress party flags and shouted slogans against G. Vijayarama Rao, who got the ticket. “He joined the party recently from TRS and grabbed the ticket, which should ideally be given to our leader,” said angry protesters.
Mr. Pratap contested from Station Ghanpur in the by-election and lost against T. Rajaiah, who switched over to TRS from Congress. He aspired for a ticket this time again, but in vain. He decided to file his nomination on Wednesday as an independent.
Mr. Bikshapathi urged the TRS party leadership to rethink his candidature and vowed to file his nomination as an independent. He described the party nominee, M. Sahodar Reddy, as hopeless.
Tension also prevailed at Bhupalpalli where the TDP aspirant, Gandra Satyanarana Rao, had to sacrifice his seat to BJP as part of the alliance. Protests were held by his supporters. He said he had done a lot of ground work and was sure of winning the seat this time, but had to forego the chance due to an alliance. He expressed unhappiness over the party leadership’s decision to give away the winning seat to BJP. His supporters climbed up the overhead water tank and threatened to jump to death. However, the police managed to control the situation.
More trouble is brewing in Narasampet assembly constituency where DCC president D. Madhava Reddy was asked to wait till the last minute.
He reportedly ran from pillar to post to influence the party decision and secure ticket. However, it was not clear till the last reports came in that the ticket was allotted to someone else.
